Essex Age Group Championships – Block B

Block B of Essex brings both ends of the spectrum; 50m sprints at the London Aquatic Centre and the gruelling 1500m Freestyle at Basildon Sporting Village.

The sprints produced medals for Town across all four strokes, including the 4×50 Medley Relay where the 9/10 year old girls comprising Ella Kilby (back), Codie McSheffrey (breast), Lexie O’Connor (fly) and Sophia Moule fought hard to collect themselves a silver medal. The individual sprints also produced great results: 15 year old Aaron Wilson claimed silver in the 50m Freestyle and 14 year old Amelia Moule collected her first medal of the day, starting off with a gold in the 50m Freestyle. 14 year old Lewis Binning and 12 year old Louis Lane battled in the 50m Backstroke, claiming a silver apiece. Binning then demonstrated his strength by claiming gold medal in the 50m Butterfly, where Joshua Eguakhide produced a fine PB to take a hard fought bronze. James Rowell earned himself the silver medal in the 16 year age group of the 50m Backstroke.

The afternoon session produced 8 more medals for Town. Lane claimed silver in the 50m Freestyle with Binning taking another gold. Moule took silver in the 50m Backstroke, before Lane and Binning dominated their 50m Breaststroke races both claiming gold medal finishes. Isabelle Jopson produced a gutsy swim to take the silver medal in the 14 year old 50m Butterfly, before Jess Ayling claimed a pair of silver medals in the 16 year age group in both the 50m Breaststroke and 50m Freestyle. Jude Ward just missed out on a podium finish in the 15 year age group 50m Backstroke. Many other Town swimmers made finals (top ten placing in the County) and achieved PBs, some representing the Club at County Championships for the first time.

Four boys made the outing on Sunday evening for the 1500m Freestyle, but each of them made it count by making podium finishes. In the 16 year age group Joe Groves made his long course debut count, by claiming the silver medal. The 14 year old age group boys then gave RTSC its first 1,2,3 finish of the competition so far – gold went to the ever dominant Lewis Binning showing his strength across all distances, with team mates Daniel Gencas and Nathan Banga taking silver and bronze respectively.

The final weekend of this year’s Essex Championships takes place at Basildon Sporting Village on 18/19 February.